The Long Ride

In the tumult of 1970s New York City, seventh graders are bussed from their neighborhood in Queens to integrate a new school in South Jamaica.

Jamila Clarke. Josie Rivera. Francesca George. Three mixed-race girls, close friends whose immigrant parents worked hard to settle their families in a neighborhood with the best schools. The three girls are outsiders there, but they have each other.

Now, at the start seventh grade, they are told they will be part of an experiment, taking a long bus ride to a brand-new school built to mix up the black and white kids. Their parents don't want them to be experiments. Francesca's send her to a private school, leaving Jamila and Josie to take the bus ride without her.

While Francesca is testing her limits, Josie and Jamila find themselves outsiders again at the new school. As the year goes on, the Spanish girls welcome Josie, while Jamila develops a tender friendship with a boy--but it's a relationship that can exist only at school.

Author: Marina Budhos
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books
Published: 09/24/2019
Pages: 208
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.80w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780553534221
Audience: Ages 9-12

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 3.9
Point Value: 5
Interest Level: Middle Grade
Quiz #/Name: 504400 / Long Ride


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 06/15/2019 pg. 93
Publishers Weekly 06/24/2019
Kirkus Reviews Fall Preview 08/15/2019 pg. 46
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 09/01/2019
Booklist 09/01/2019 pg. 108
Horn Book Magazine 09/01/2019 pg. 81
Voice of Youth Advocates 10/01/2019 - Recommended - Readable
Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2019 - Superior,Well Above Average

About the Author
Marina Budhos is the author of award-winning fiction and nonfiction. Her novels for young adults are Watched, Tell Us We're Home, and Ask Me No Questions. Her nonfiction books include Eyes of the World: Robert Capa & Gerda Taro & The Invention of Modern Photojournalism; Remix: Conversations with Immigrant Teenagers; and Sugar Changed the World, which she cowrote with her husband, Marc Aronson. Budhos has received an EMMA (Exceptional Merit Media Award), a Rona Jaffe Award for Women Writers, and two fellowships from the New Jersey Council on the Arts. She has been a Fulbright Scholar to India and is a professor of English at William Paterson University. Visit her online at marinabudhos.com.